Recreational and sporting footwear such as roller skates, ice skates, rollerblades and the like are well known. It has also been known to create footwear which can function both as a skate and as a shoe suitable for walking without impediment by the skate. To this end, skating footwear have been developed whereby the rollers or skates are displaceable between a ground-engaging, extended position for skating or rollerblading, and a retracted position which allows normal walking.
Typically, footwear incorporating a retractable skate have a recess or cavity in the underside or sole of the footwear which houses the skate when retracted. Retraction of the skate into the recess, and extension out of the recess into a ground-engaging position, enable selection of normal walking use or skating use respectively.
Skating footwear having retractable and/or extendible skating means are variously described, for example, in International Publication WO 01/85271, International Publication WO 00/16862 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,469
However, many such displacement apparatus for skating footwear are cumbersome to operate, difficult and costly to manufacture and are prone to inadvertent retraction of the skating means during skating use. This latter problem can lead to a skater being injured. The general acceptability and commercial appeal of skating footwear of the type hereinbefore described has been compromised by some of all of the aforementioned deficiencies.